Dave felt a tail sprouting out of his butt and snaking down inside his jeans as he grew fur all over his body and his nose stretched out. But he was still standing up and wearing clothes.
Terry grinned. "You looked like Scooby-Doo dressed up as Dave."
Dave growled. "Very funny. Your turn now."
"No," said Terry, "it's Tom's."
Tom glanced up at Terry and Doggy-Dave. "All right."
He rolled the dice, double sixes, box cars. He moved twelve spaces and drew a card while Terry consulted the rules. "You rolled doubles. That says here that you get a second turn after this."
"Great..." said Tom, reading his card:
All your life you've been cut short
except in brains, so here's the deal:
tall and dumb or short and smart?
Which of these should be made real?
Tom looked at it. He wanted to stay smart, and he certainly didn't want to get any shorter. He thought for a moment, then smiled, folding the card in the middle like an old Mad magazine fold-in till it read "Tall and Smart."
He suddenly felt his arms and legs and torso lengthening, his T-shirt pulling out of his jeans as he got smarter and smarter until he at last stood as much taller than Dave as Dave usually stood taller than him. "Woah," he said, then took the rule book from Terry. "Let me see that for a second."
A second was all it took for him to speed-read through it with his new overclocked intellect. "Old magic," he said after a moment. "Whoever wins keeps their changes, while the losers revert to their old selves. But 'win' is relative. Wouldn't mind winning at what I've got currently, but have to roll again..."
He took the dice and rolled once more, only going four spaces this time, closer but not all the way around the board to end the game. He drew his card hesitantly:
My you are a clever fellow.
Here's your choice now: Green or Yellow?
"What does that mean?" asked Terry.
"It means," Tom explained simply, "that the game is getting back at me for beating it at the last turn. There are thousands of possible interpretations to each, unless..." Tom grinned, "Dave, would you take my new card for me?" Tom held it out to him and said, "Take it."
Dave did immediately and Tom explained, "Obedience."
Dave growled, "I'm not stupid, Tom. I'll pick, oh, green."
All at once Daves muscles began to inflate while his hair turned emerald green until he looked like an anthropomorphic dog version of the Hulk.
Tom grinned down at Terry. "Your turn."